The necessity for offsetting any unbalance in bodies of revolution is conditioned by the emergence of adverse vibrations of machines with unbalanced rotating bodies of revolution, which reduces the service life and impairs the proper functioning of said machines.
Bodies of revolution (rotors, drums, extractors, grinding wheels) in such machines as centrifuges, washing machines, grinding machines and hand grinders can rotate both about vertical and horizontal axes. Unbalanced bodies of revolution in such machines arise in the process of operation thereof during each operating cycle.
Widely known in the art is an apparatus for balancing bodies of revolution (cf. USSR Inventor's Certificate No. 257,828, cl. G O1M 1/38, 1967) effecting the balancing of bodies of revolution at subcritical speeds of rotation. Said apparatus comprises balancing tanks with drain holes, installed peripherally within the body of revolution, and a central distributing chamber admitting liquid from a liquid supply source. The distributing chamber is provided with conduits connected with the balancing tanks disposed diametrically opposite to the distributing chamber by means of pipelines.
Said apparatus allows one to compensate for the static unbalance of the body of revolution at subcritical rotation speeds and with a strictly vertical position of the axis of rotation of the body of revolution. However, the apparatus calls for an uninterrupted supply of liquid from the source of supply installed in a stationary position outside the rotating body of revolution. As a result, the apparatus is not self-contained. Besides, the apparatus is operable only with the axis of rotation of the body of revolution in a vertical position, for only this position makes the liquid in the distributing chamber flows towards an appropriate conduit, bypassing the inlets to the remaining conduits of the distributing chamber.
Widely known in the art is also an apparatus for balancing bodies of revolution, effecting the balancing of bodies of revolution at supercritical rotation speeds (cf. USSR Inventor's Certificate No. 561,099, cl. G 01M 1/38, 1976). Said apparatus for balancing bodies of revolution comprises balancing tanks mounted peripherally within the body of revolution, and a central distributing chamber admitting liquid from a stationary liquid supply source disposed outside the body of revolution. The distributing chamber is provided with conduits with the ends thereof located inside the distributing chamber and equidistant from the geometric axis of the body of revolution. Pipelines connect the conduits with the balancing tanks in a radial direction. The apparatus is operable irrespective of the position of the axis of rotation of the body of revolution.
When the body is revolution is immobilized, the balancing liquid from the balancing tanks is drained into the environment. Each new operating cycle of the mechanism containing said body of revolution requires a new portion of the balancing liquid to be fed from the liquid supply source, which deranges self-sufficiency of the apparatus for balancing bodies of revolution. Liquid supply from the stationary supply source hampers the use of a liquid with a greater specific gravity or the use of liquid metals which generally possess a pungent disagreable smell or poisonous properties.
Moreover, if the body of revolution initially rotates at subcritical and then at supercritical speeds, the apparatus for balancing bodies of revolution introduces additional unbalance with the liquid being fed into the distributing chamber at subcritical rotation speeds of the body of revolution.